My First Automated Election Experience

I went to vote at Rafael Palma Elementary School with my kuya. We came there around 7:45 am. When we arrived, we checked at the board the room assignment of our precinct which we got online. We belong to precinct 3047-A Barangay 805 and assigned to room 308. When we got to the 3rd floor, there are already a number of people in line but the line was a bit confusing because of the two rooms catering to two barangays. When we found our room and saw the line, kuya and I went to the tail of it. While on line, we saw familiar faces and greeted them. What we have noticed though is the difference of the system the two rooms implement. Room 307 catering to barangay 804 was able to make people go inside faster than our line. We have noticed that they give out papers as numbers for people to go in. On our line, a female assistant writes the name, page number and the voter’s number on a pink piece of paper. While an old male person does the same for the male but he wrote the information on a blue paper. They count people 1-10 who as a “set” will go inside the classroom. My kuya had a short “heated discussion” with the old male teacher what the blue paper is for. Because for us, it is their responsibility to look for our names when we reach the room, once we have given them our information upon checking it from the list they posted by the door (page number and voter’s number). For kuya and I, the pink and blue papers are just wastes. Another incident, but this one we were able to tolerate, was letting old people, kinda weak senior citizens, to go first and vote ahead of those who came early and are patiently waiting in line for their turn to vote. But this other incident really made me annoyed and really had a word fight with one of the voters. He came in around past 9 am and there are a lot of people behind me already. He claims to be a poll watcher so the old male teacher helped him to cut the line. He was placed behind me. Since I can’t really tolarate this one, I told the person originally behind me that he is so kind for letting that poll watcher guy to go in front of him because he has a work to do for being a watcher. Then, the poll watcher guy with loud voice told the old male teacher at the back that I didn’t want him to go in front of the guy originally behind me. And so I talked to him in sharp (mataray) voice and said “kung alam mong may trabaho ka, dapat maaga ka nagpunta dito. Kanina pa nasa pila ang mga tao dito at hindi porke watcher ka, may karapatan kang sumigit!” He started bubbling things like who am I and who my parents are, but I didn’t anymore mind him and not cared of where he went or whatsoever. The guy originally behind me said thanks to me when I went inside the room already for my turn to vote. I smiled at him before I let myself be attended to. The lady teacher looked for me on the list then I signed. I got my ballot, went behind the room beside kuya and started shading the “bilog na hugis itlog” beside the names of the candidates I vote for. When I went to the pcos machine to feed my ballot, it took me 3 tries before the machine at last accepted my ballot. Then, I had my right pointing finger be applied with indelible ink (which I think is way better than the previous inks from the past elections cause its really super purple and I can’t take them off) and the black ink for my thumb mark to be placed beside my signature from the voters registration list where I started. And that’s it! Kuya and I got to home after 1 hour and 30 minutes in RPES.

Voting perse was easy and fast. What took us long was the unorganized line (cause there were a few who just pretended to look for their names by the door then didn’t go at the back anymore to fall in line but instead went inside the room right away and the people/teachers inside didn’t notice. The “ka-kilala system” was also annoying but when they heard people at the back complaining about it, they at last went at the back of the line.) Also, the first few people who were able to vote already said that there was a time that the pcos machine didn’t work that took them longer inside.

It makes me sad reading few comments that they are having disinterest to vote, not just today but in the future elections as well. It is because for me, since it is the first automated election, there are really a number of glitches than can be encountered, but this should not stop us from being an active part of our country by exercising our right to vote for our leaders.

In general, my first automated election experience was really something worth learning from and a mixture of annoyance and joy from all the incidents that I encountered. I’m looking forward for the next election, automated or manual. But I still hope for a better automated election in the future because manual election is so passé.

(NOTE: My “information” at the voters registration list was page 6 number 71).. =)